Emanuelis Zingeris: No “tsunami” of political emigration from Minsk to Vilnius
- 1.09.2011, 0:22
The chairman of the Lithuanian Seimas Committee on Foreign Affairs refutes information from a Lithuanian human rights activists about the tide of political refugees from Belarus.
Lithuanian newspaper Lietuvos Rytas has recently written that “having heard promises of Lithuanian politicians to provide more support to democracy in Belarus, citizens of the neighbouring country began to flow in Vilnius with the hope to get the promised means”.
“Belarusians were probably impressed by statements o Emenuelis Zingeris, the head of the Seimas Committee on Foreign Affairs, on the necessity to increase financing of the Belarusian opposition,” the newspaper concluded.
As the paper learnt from Stasys Kaušinis, the director of Civil Defence Fund, he began to receive 3 or 4 applications every day from Belarusian citizens ready to struggle against the regime of Alyaksandr Lukashenka and strengthen democracy.
“Some Belarusians say about tortures they faced, some offers projects, but everyone asks about an organization that will pay the money promised by Zingeris and who will pay travel expanses,” the human rights activist said.
The website charter97.org asked the chairman of the Seimas Committee on Foreign Affaitrs, Emanuelis Zingeris, to comment on Kaušinis's remarks.
“We work to have open borders between Belarus and Lithuania. We work for some 800,000 Belarusians living near border and 1 million Lithuanians to be able to look at each other in the 50-km border zone and for Belarusians to be able to taste the fruits of EU development and see how democracy looks like. It was an unanimous decision of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. There are no 'tsunamis' of political elite from Belarus to Lithuania. Some prominent people have arrived in Lithuania today and we are happy to host them. They are cultivated pro-European persons who will further increase the pro-Western development of Vilnius. The people of Lithuania will always share a slice of bread and a pinch of salt with them in spite of the economic crisis.
As for the information spread, it was pleasant to see the enthusiasm of certain news agencies in .ru domain zone, which think that 'tides' of political refugees from Belarus could scare the Lithuanian politician elites. Unfortunately, there are no 'tides'. But it they were, the quality of Vilnius's European mentality would only grow,” the Lithuanian politician said.